Kansas Higher-Ed Enrollment Still 10.7% Below 2012 Peak

Kelly Joins Multistate Effort to Block D.C. Guard Deployments

Kelly Tours First New State Mental Hospital in a Century

Kansas Wheat Harvest Starts Early as 58% Rated Poor

Valley Center Man Bound Over on Child Sex Charges

Kansas Higher-Ed Enrollment Still 10.7% Below 2012 Peak

TOPEKA, Kan. — Enrollment across Kansas's public higher education system remains 10.7% below its 2012 peak, the Kansas Board of Regents reported during its May 20-21 meeting in Topeka. Elaine Frisbie, the board's vice president for finance and administration, told members that system-wide headcount across the state's public universities, community colleges and technical colleges has been climbing since the pandemic. Out-of-state recruitment has reached record levels, partially offsetting the longer-term decline.

Kansas News Service · KPR

Kelly Joins Multistate Effort to Block D.C. Guard Deployments

TOPEKA, Kan. — Gov. Laura Kelly has joined a coalition of two dozen Democratic governors and state attorneys general urging a federal appeals court to block the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. In an amicus brief filed May 26 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the coalition asked the court to deny the administration's appeal and uphold a lower-court ruling that halted the deployment. Kelly said using the Guard as a domestic law enforcement force infringes on governors' command authority and pulls service members away from their primary state duties. The brief argues the deployments threaten civilian control of the military and the sovereignty of state and local governments, and it points to a U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting a similar attempted deployment in Illinois. The coalition raised concerns over the president's stated intent to send troops to additional cities, citing disrupted policing, economic damage, diverted state resources and heightened civil unrest. Kelly was joined in the filing by the Democratic governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania and 23 Democratic state attorneys general.

Gov. Kelly joins multistate legal effort to block National Guard deployments in Washington, D.C.

The Democratic governor argues the Trump administration’s use of troops as domestic police undermines state sovereignty and civilian control of the military.

citizen journalGreg Loving

Kelly Tours First New State Mental Hospital in a Century

WICHITA, Kan. — Gov. Laura Kelly on May 26 toured the under-construction South Central Regional Mental Health Hospital in south Wichita, calling it the first new state mental health hospital built in Kansas in more than a century. The 104-bed facility broke ground roughly a year earlier and is scheduled to open in January 2027. When complete, it will serve Sedgwick, Butler, Cowley, Harvey and Sumner counties and ease the state's reliance on the Larned and Osawatomie hospitals. Four of the five Sedgwick County commissioners joined the tour, with Commissioner Jim Howell describing the project as in a very good state of completion.

KWCH

Kansas Wheat Harvest Starts Early as 58% Rated Poor

The U.S. Department of Agriculture rated 58% of the Kansas winter wheat crop poor or very poor in its weekly Crop Progress and Condition Report released May 27, as a hot, dry spring pushed the harvest weeks ahead of schedule. By the week ending May 24, 93% of the crop had headed, well ahead of the 72% five-year average. In Sumner County, growers Randy Wyckoff and Marty Rusk began cutting wheat on May 27, roughly two weeks earlier than usual, after the dry weather stripped moisture from the crop before its typical June start. Rusk said he had not seen a pre-June harvest since working alongside his father as a child. Wyckoff said early-planted fields looked decent, but acres seeded after the crop-insurance deadline showed severe damage.

Sabetha Herald · KWCH

Valley Center Man Bound Over on Child Sex Charges

WICHITA, Kan. — Lucas Youngers, 31, was bound over for trial on May 27 in Sedgwick County District Court on four counts of rape and five counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The case involves two victims younger than 14 in Valley Center, with the alleged offenses occurring in March 2026. Youngers was arrested on a Sedgwick County District Court warrant. His arraignment is scheduled for July 21.

KAKE

Sources

1. Board of Regents May 20–21 Board Book
2. KWCH
3. Sabetha Herald / KWCH
4. KAKE

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